“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord . . . how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:5–6
In John 14:6, Jesus dropped the bomb on his disciples by making the biggest statement ever!!! He tells his disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (my emphasis). In this one colossal proclamation, Jesus gives us four inescapable, undeniable truths about himself that we cannot ignore.
1. “I am the way . . .”
What road are you on? Who or where are you trying to get to? If it’s God you’re trying to get to, then Jesus says that he is the way—not “a” way, “the” way.
What does that mean for us? It means that as humans, everything we seek is in God. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has placed eternity in man’s heart. We long for what is eternal. We long for the eternal One. God has given us new desires through the Holy Spirit and Jesus is the way to get to all that we desire.
What do you desire? Love? Acceptance? Justice? Righteousness? It’s all in Jesus.
2. “. . . the truth”
Jesus doesn’t say here that he merely knows the truth. He doesn’t even say that he tells the truth—Jesus states here that he is the truth! This means that everything contrary to him or outside of him is a lie! Anything other than Jesus that claims to grant you love is a lie. Anything outside of Jesus that claims to satisfy your longings and desires is a lie.
What do you believe gives you worth? Why are you valuable? What do you think will bring you ultimate fulfillment? If it’s something or someone other than Jesus, it’s a lie—and it’s lying to you at this moment.
3. “. . . and the life.”
Jesus makes the claim that he is the life. This is interesting, because as humans, this is what we all pursue. We pursue living life to the fullest. But if Jesus said that he is life, then what is it that we are really pursuing? Fun? Thrills? Education? Comfort? Status? They will all pass away along with this world—so none of them can be classified as being “life.
Jesus alone is life. Are we pursuing Jesus? In him is where we find our life, because he is our life (Col. 3:3–4)!
4. “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
This is the boldest statement of them all. Out of all of the people in the world trying to get to God, claiming to know God, boasting of being spiritual, so on and so forth, Jesus says that no one gets to God except through him. Jesus is saying the he alone is the gatekeeper. There is no other way to God but by him. If we are trying to be accepted by God by means of moral living, good deeds, abstaining from “big sins,” church attendance, giving to the needy, or even praying or preaching . . . then we have missed the gate. There is no access to God or acceptance from God outside of Jesus and his cross.
Who do you say Jesus is? What’s your view of him? In John 14:6, we see what Jesus says about himself: he is the way to God. If you’re trusting in something other than the person and work of Jesus to get you to God, you’re missing it. If you don’t hear, heed, or believe anything else in your life, at least hear, heed, and believe John 14:6. It’s the biggest statement ever made.
